Town to collect $$ for Bluebonnet Knolls violations

The town has already won more than $90,000 from one resident who violated regulations for a decade, and those fines continue to mount.

The town's
Zoning Commission
has been awarded $84,400 in fines as a result of an enforcement action taken against
William Shaw
of 28 Bluebonnet Knolls. It has also been awarded $7,000 in legal fees and costs.

Zoning Enforcement Officer
Kathy Castagnetta
told the town council last month a lien was placed on the property.

Mrs. Castagnetta said Tuesday that "Mr. Shaw continually exhibited total disregard for the zoning regulations, the town, and his neighbors."

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"The horrendous condition of his property had a tremendous negative impact on his neighbors' right to enjoyment of their property," the ZEO said.

Mr. Shaw's attorney,
Robert V Cimmino
, said he could not comment because he had not received a copy of Judge Pickard's decision, nor had his client.

Mrs. Castagnetta has said her office and the health department have been trying to work with Mr. Shaw for more than a decade. Zoning served notice of violations of the town's regulations by issuing cease and desist orders, but the property continued in violation of regulations, including violations of the Building and Property Nuisances Ordinance.

During dozens of site inspections over the past decade, the town documented storage of several unregistered motor vehicles, including a large backhoe loader on the front lawn, metal debris, improperly stored trash and used oil filters, burying of used motor vehicle parts including a transmission, renting out trailers, and operating a motor vehicle repair business at a residence.

"Mr. Shaw admitted to purposefully stripping his property of all visual tree buffer and grass turf as retribution for his neighbors placing complaints with the town with regard to the condition of his property," the ZEO said.

In July 2002, the town won an enforcement action and fines of $100 a day were imposed. Despite the 2002 court order, the property was not brought into compliance and, on Dec. 15, an award was set at $84,400.

Initially, Litchfield
Superior Court
Judge
John Pickard
awarded the fine to the state but, at a hearing last month, that decision was changed and Judge Pickard ruled the fines should be paid to the town.

In his Jan. 18 decision, Judge Pickard wrote that because "the [Shaw] property has not been brought into compliance, there is no basis for remission of any of that fine."

Additionally the judge imposed a fine of $250 a day for violations of the court's Dec. 15 order of a permanent mandatory and prohibitory injunction that specifically spells out what can be on the property.

"Anything beyond that, he's in violation," said the ZEO.

Judge Pickard has set a hearing for April 25 to hear testimony regarding compliance with his December order; to calculate the extent of the fine for the period from Dec. 15 to April 25; and to determine if any of that fine should be remitted.

"Obviously, this case will have a positive impact on the Bluebonnet Knolls neighborhood," said Mrs. Castagnetta, who added she hopes it will also strengthen the integrity of the town's zoning regulations.

"The next time someone receives a cease and desist order for junkyard conditions on their property, or for that matter any other type of zoning violation," she opined, "they may think of Mr. Shaw's $84,000 penalty and think twice before disregarding the zoning laws."

Mrs. Castagnetta said prosecution of zoning violation cases can be fairly expensive and very time consuming. The Shaw case has already involved five court appearances, and there is a sixth now set for April.

She said attorney
John Tower
"represented the town well in this case, and did his best to keep costs at a minimum."